OQO may sound like a city in Japan, but it’s actually a company that makes ultra-mobile PCs - handheld computers capable of running a full-size operating system. It’s been around for seven years, and was founded by a team of ex-Apple engineers. The Model e2 is the company’s third shot at a UMPC, following in the diminutive …

Linux?

It's no MobilePro

I'll stick with my NEC MobilePro 950, with its WiFi, modem, pccard slot, USB 2.0, and 8-hour battery. And touch screen. Which I got for $85 on eBay. Two grand for an OQO makes it an overpriced inconvenience.

3-4 hours on battery - Nope.

Sounds like a cool device but....

... look at the price! This thing is horrifically expensive and so are most of the UMPC devices. How the hell are they going to survive the onslaught of cheap laptops such as the Asus eee PC which released this week. An Asus eee PC costs $400 and arrives in a small form factor that crosses well into UMPC territory. It also runs Linux (though Asus claims it can run XP too), and can do so better due to reduced specs.

While the eee PC is larger than an OQO, I can totally see it being the pathfinder for similar devices that eventually reach iPaq sizes but still a full desktop OS. All for far cheaper than UMPC. Arguably the eee PC has already claimed one scalp - the Palm Folio and I don't see it stopping there. Microsoft and manufacturers had better respond with their own cheap models or they'll be in a heap of trouble trying to shift these things.

RE: Rubber keys?

I was just about to say the same thing. Not that there is necessarily anything bad about looking like a ZX Spectrum. Though with Vista installed, I doubt that it will reach the performance levels of a Speccy.

ooo shiny

I like it. I can only see System on a Chip tech make it all smaller! even smaller still...

Now, form factor is an issue... qwerty is nice, but since I'm 6'10 and my hands are enormous I don't think there's a single keyboard that really pleases me except the one on my desktop. I just get used to the stylus instead, which you can learn pretty fast.

But I must say, it looks fancy. A real geek toy. It wouldn't surprise me OQO are heading the direction of mobile phones and portable gaming devices.

Still, what's the real use of this device? On the field data entry, be it a medical statistics or readings from a seismograph. Warehouse inventorising. A huge number of things, but for which most... a battery lifetime of 8 hours might be minimal.